Gregory Lewis

I consider that it is necessary to raise the case of Gregory Lewis from South Africa who was on a Jerusalem Fellowship at the Aish HaTorah Yeshivah. He went missing on 19th December 1996, the day after phoning his parents in South Africa to find out the results of his University Exams, which he passed with highest grades. His body was found on 27th December 1996 off Herzlia beach handcuffed and roped. On 1st January 1997 the Israeli police put out a Missing Persons photograph in the Jerusalem Post. The announcement of finding of his body was not announced till a month after he had been found – WE MUST ASK WHY????

His parents came to Israel in December and on 3rd January 1997. I met them, by chance, in the hotel in Jerusalem where I was staying. His father was so cut up that he had difficulty reciting kiddush, and his mother was so sick that she could not eat. tutuapp free download They were at their wits end as they correctly assumed that they could not get the publicity that was necessary. They were left to their own devices to paste up posters in Ir Atikah and Tel Aviv because the police refused to put their son’s picture and details on the Mabaat TV news and in the Hebrew Papers. They could not understand the refusal of the police on this matter.

It is not widely known that Gregory was a relation of Dr Lewis of Haifa who was Menahem Begin’s personal heart physician.

Letter that I circulated to the Israeli Media on 26th January 1997

I was saddened to learn, (Friday, 24th January), that the body of missing South African student, Gregory Lewis, washed ashore at Herzliya on 27th December, was identified almost a month later. When Greg went missing, his distraught parents flew into Israel from South Africa and did not receive the reception due to them from both the Israeli Police and Security Services. I happened to be in Jerusalem at the beginning of January and was staying in the same hotel as the parents where I met them. They had appealed to the police to place advertisements containing a photograph of their missing son in all the major newspapers and on the major TV news – the only action by the Israel Police National Headquarters Investigation Branch – Missing Persons Bureau was an advertisement in the Jerusalem Post on January 1st – 5 days after the body had been washed ashore – and a mention on the English language TV news. Their appeal to the police to get the item mentioned on the major Israeli TV want to download youtube videos? with itube apk then you can download any youtube videos easily within seconds news was flatly turned down and they were subjected to verbal abuse at the Russian Compound. Subsequently they were left to their own devices to try and ascertain the whereabouts of their son, including pasting up A4 photocopies of a photograph of their son with a missing message in the Old City and in Tel Aviv.

It is ironic and certainly highlights incompetence in high places that after the body had been washed ashore, the police placed a missing persons advert in the Jerusalem Post — did nobody bother to check the record of missing persons – after all Greg had gone missing on 19th December, some 7 days before the body was washed ashore — is their no liaison between the various branches of the police? This matter demands immediate investigation at the highest level, probably by the State Controller’s Office.

Dr C. L. Leci
London